Evaluation of non-pharmacological nursing approaches in delirium management

Abstract

Aim: In this study, it was aimed to contribute to evidence-based nursing interventions by examining the non-pharmacological nursing approaches used in delirium management in postgraduate theses published in the field of national and international nursing. Method: The theses published between January 1, 2016 and July 11, 2021 were scanned from the national thesis center (YÖK thesis center) of the Higher Education Council in the national field, and from the Proquest (Dissertations & Theses Global‎) database in the international field. Keywords in Turkish were delirium, non-pharmacological interventions, prevention and nursing care, while they were delirium, non-pharmacological interventions, prevention and nursing care in English. The PRISMA 2020 Checklist was used to evaluate the reporting features. Keywords were found in the titles of 2801 graduate theses, 2456 in Proquest and 345 in YÖK thesis center. As a result, after the selections made according to the title, abstract and full text, 10 theses were decided. Results: 70% (n=7) of the postgraduate theses were doctoral theses and 30% (n=3) were master's theses. 85.7% (n=6) of doctoral theses belonged to international literature and 14.3% (n=1) to national literature. 66.7% (n=2) of the master's theses belonged to the national literature, and 33.3% (n=1) to the international literature. In a master's thesis, it was revealed that delirium can be prevented by environmental organisation. In an international master's thesis, there were findings that the use of a sleep hygiene checklist will reduce delirium. As a result of the training given to nurses about delirium identification tools in doctoral theses, data were obtained about the decrease in the incidence of patient delirium. Conclusion: It is predicted that national and international postgraduate theses will provide evidence-level information to non-pharmacological nursing interventions in delirium management and create a database for future research on this subject